Unpredictable winds worry Rajasthan power distributors

Unpredictable winds are creating a headache for wind power distribution companies in Rajasthan.

Rajasthan at present has a wind power capacity of 2,200 MW. The electricity generated by this installed capacity may exceed 1,700 MW and then dip to 30-40 MW and sometimes touch nil on the same day. Rajasthan discoms thus find it difficult to project the demand for power a day ahead keeping in view this massive variation in wind power supply.

As put by the agenda note of Jaipur Vidyut Vitran Nigam for the forthcoming meeting of the Operation Coordination Sub-Committee of Northern Regional Power Committee., “Rajasthan Discoms are keenly maintaining the grid discipline as per CERC guidelines. It is important to quote a situation here where Rajasthan Discoms draw power from the grid as per schedule in a particular block and having wind generation support of 1400-1500 MW at that time. Suddenly, the wind generation dips to 100 MW and under this condition it becomes very difficult to immediately shed the 1400 MW load to keep the drawl within schedule. The Rajasthan Discoms face such situation very often.”

It points out that un-scheduled load shedding adversely affects the quality of supply and consumer satisfaction.

JVVNL has thus proposed that NRPC should allow Rajasthan discoms relaxation in over drawl of electricity at frequencies above 49.7 HZ.